Gospel-Homily for Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time (2025)

Read the Homily

If You Get the Chance.

There was a rich man who owned a slave. He named him Useful because he thought he was useless. That is like calling your slave lucky when you make his life unlucky. Anyway, Useful ran away, met Paul, and became a Christian. Paul was in a Roman prison at the time. Let me tell you a little about Roman prisons. They do not provide prisoners with food, water, clothing, or medicine.  Outside folks need to provide those things. So Useful was useful to Paul while he was in prison. Then Paul made a move that no one expected. He sent Useful back to his master, the one who had thought him useless. But Paul did not send him back alone to an angry master. He also wrote a letter. In the letter, he invites the master to take the role of the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son. “When you see Useful at a distance. Run to him, put your arms around in joy. Then, put sandals on his feet because slaves do not wear sandals, and put a ring on his finger because now he belongs to your family, and kill the fatted calf for a feast. If you do that, then you will experience for the first time in your life what it is like to be like God.”

Today is my birthday. I am sixty-five. The bad part about having a birthday growing up on September 6 is that I got all school stuff for presents: pants, shirts, pencil boxes, and notebooks. My brother’s birthday was in February, and he always got fun toys. But one year, my mother gave me a bike. I was the first kid in our neighborhood to have a three-speed bike. After I buffed out the chrome and took a last look at its beauty, I gave it to my younger brother. Years later, someone asked me why my mother did not make me take the bike back. The reason was because my mother wanted me to experience what it was like to be generous. She knew I would get something much better than a bike: a new best friend.

If you ever get the chance to live Christ’s life in any facet, whether it be his mercy,  generosity, or kindness, take it. You will love the experience.